A printed circuit board is formed from a thin board of electrically non-conducting material in which is formed a partly connected and partly disconnected network or matrix of electrically conducting elements. To make a particular circuit on a printed circuit board, components must be placed on the board with electrical connections between them being made by the matrix. However, many electrical circuits are quite complex and require much testing and moving around of the circuit components. This means that the circuit board on which the original circuit is placed should allow the leads to be easily removed from the board and re-inserted into the board, while making good electrical connections when inserted into the board. For this reason, a breadboard is often used to prepare the initial circuit. The breadboard has a particular matrix of electrically connecting elements and this matrix is used to connect the components. Once the prototype circuit is made and proven to be functional, it must be converted to a prototype printed circuit board. This is accomplished largely as follows.
1. The layout of the circuit is copied onto paper. PA1 2. An experimenter's board of a suitable size is obtained. This board will have its own matrix of electrical connections that will not necessarily match the breadboard matrix. PA1 3. The circuit layout from the breadboard matrix is converted to a matrix suitable for the type of experimenter's board being used. PA1 4. All components are removed from the breadboard and placed on the experimenter's board according to the layout developed in step 3. PA1 5. All components and jumper wires are soldered in place on the experimenter's board, and traces cut.
At this stage a hard wired prototype now exists, and is ready to be tested. However due to the complexity of this process there is considerable room for errors to be made and it is typical that even an experienced technician will expect to have to spend substantial additional time retracing and debugging the board.